Blackjack, also known as “21”, is popular and has been played in casinos for many years. The rules of the game of Blackjack are well known to those skilled in the art.
The rules, with a few exceptions, are fairly universal. Some alternate rules of the basic Blackjack game require the dealer to hit a soft 17 (a hand count according to the rules of Blackjack of 17 including an Ace which counts as one or eleven), limit the hand counts to which a player can double down to ten or eleven, and limit the number of times a hand can be split are but a few examples. These alternate or modified rules are well known as well.
Recently, Blackjack-type games such as SPANISH 21® described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,888 issued Apr. 1, 1997 to Lofink et al the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, have been created. Some of these games include the feature of an additional or side wager to fund and participate in a jackpot feature for the game based upon the player's hand. In these games the side wager is optional and is not mandatory.
As hereinafter used, the term Blackjack or Blackjack-type or Blackjack-style game refers not only to the basic Blackjack game with its variations but also the aforementioned and other games which are like Blackjack.
Other variations include that described in Le Vasseur U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,789 where a player can play a single hand against multiple dealer's hands and String U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,705 where a player can elect to wager upon whether the player or dealer will obtain a winning hand.
These Blackjack games are banked by the house (e.g. casino). This means that the player is playing against the dealer who represents the house (casino). Wagers are paid to a player having a winning outcome by the dealer (the “house”) and losing wagers are collected by the dealer for the house. Further nearly all winning outcomes are paid at even money, i.e. 1:1, except for a Blackjack (an Ace with a ten value card) which typically pays 3:2.
It has also been known to incorporate Blackjack into gaming devices, handheld novelty games and computer games. These Blackjack game are based upon the traditional rules of Blackjack; but may often provide, for a casino wagering game, a pay out of only 1:1 to the player for a Blackjack to provide a vigourish to the casino.
In a heretofore unrelated game which is the subject matter of my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,314 issued Aug. 31, 1999 and titled “Method For Playing a Card Game” I introduced the concept of a trump suit, as suggested in card games such as Bridge, into a new casino game.
Players can become bored with traditional Blackjack. Accordingly there is a need for a new and improved Blackjack-type game for play in both a live, table game, format and electronic version for Internet, novelty game, computer game and electronic machine play.